First Name: XonwarLast Name: None. His mother's last name is Qo Merak, but he doesn't use it.

Appearance: He looks about average for a Fire Genasi, but the fact that his hair and beard appears to be on fire, may unnerve some.Race: Fire GenasiAge: 27Height Slightly taller than averageWeight: Slightly below average for heightEyes: FieryHair: FieryFacial Hair Style: Full beard

Background:1324 DR – Year of the GrimoireXonwar was born on the 11th of Alturiak to Inet Qo Merak - his human mother - and an unknown, human father in the city Theymarsh, a port on the Strait of Storms between the Lake of Steam and the Shining Sea. His mother did not know exactly who the father was, and certainly not his name - or even if the man was still alive or anywhere close by. Recognized immediately as fire genasi, his mother was surprised, but no less loving of the child. And the first five years of Xonwar's life were happy.

1329 DR – Year of the Lost HelmInet fell sick in late Hammer and by the beginning of Tarsahk she was already dead. Xonwar had barely become 5 years old, but with elementally enhanced intellect, he understood the finality and gravity of the situation and deeply mourned his mother. He had no other family in Theymarsh, the closest family was his already quite old grandparents in Mintar, who were estranged from Inet many years before Xonwar were born due to Inet's objections to her father's priesthood to Bane. And so Xonwar ended up in an orphanage shortly after his mother died.

1330 – Year of the Marching MoonAfter less than a year at the orphanage, Xonwar had become quite introverted because he didn't enjoy playing with the other children. The best days at the orphanage, Xonwar thought, were the days one of the local wizard apprentices came by to show the children magic tricks. Xonwar was absolutely in love with magic. He wanted to read and to learn of magic. He would have endless questions to the wizard apprentices, who were suprised by the fire genasi child's insightful question.

In the middle of Mirtul, rumour of the magic-obsessed fire genasi child had spread to a local archmage who had no current apprentices. The archmage, named Mokhar Harr Torak, took interest in the young boy and journeyed to the orphanage to see if Xonwar was a potential, worthy apprentice. The keepers of the orphanage were relieved that the archmage had taken interest, as they themselves were at loss for how to satisfy the fire genasi's hunger for learning about magic.

Mokhar visited the orphanage every day for two month, having lessons with Xonwar. Xonwar grew happier and happier as the archmage taught him about magic. The basics of the various schools of magic, the intricacies of the subschools. By the end of the first month, Xonwar was already practicing the light and mage hand cantrips. By the end of the second month, he had his own spell book, with these two cantrips in it.

Mokhar returned to his tower just outside the city of Suldophor on the other side of the Strait of Storms. Two ten-days went by and Xonwar practiced his magic and read more theory every day, but he wanted to learn more, and he kept asking the keepers of the ophanage if he could please move to the archmage and study under him. The sympathetic orphanage sisters could only tell the fire genasi child that he had to be invited by the archmage. They couldn't just send him. But on the 7th of Eleasis, a letter with such an invitation came. The boy was overjoyed and the keepers of the orphanage happy that Xonwar would finally be able to get the appropriate attention to his hunger for learning.

1340 – Year of the LionTen years later, by the age of sixteen, Xonwar had already become a quite powerful mage for his age. He had already mastered third circle magics, one form of metamagic and just started reading quite closely on the metamagic theories of the Arcane Scholar developed at Candlekeep. At local mage gatherings, he spent more time talking with older mages than those of his own age.

Mokhar now started to encourage Xonwar to take jobs or at least use his magic for something and not just study books and experiment. It was important to put the magic into practice as well, he said, and so encouraged Xonwar to take small jobs requiring magic. Mokhar also wanted to start a school for magic together with two other local senior wizards. By the end of Kythorn, the school was ready to start up, and they first apprentices came to the school in the middle of Eleasis. While Xonwar still was an apprentice of Mokhar (and not the school), he was at this school now considered a sort of teacher's assistant.

1342 – Year of the BehirAfter about one and a half year as a teacher's assistant, Xonwar started to grow tired of it. He didn't enjoy being a teacher, and he wasn't even a very good one. He was usually set to help the apprentices that struggled, but because he never really had struggled, it was hard for him to relate, and sometimes difficult for him to understand exactly what the apprentice didn't get about the theories. To Xonwar it was all obvious and the fact that he either failed to see the problem or failed to explain was a great source of frustration. And being a fire genasi, it was difficult for him to keep his patience and cool.

After a longer talk with Mokhar, the two decided in complete agreement that it was not the right place for Xonwar. He would still be Mokhar's apprentice for a few years, but to put his magic into use and get some real practice beyond laboratory experimentation, he would need to find another job. So with a bit of help from Mokhar, he managed to get a position in Sudolphor's town guard as a ward specialist and magical investigator. His job would mainly consist determining what wards would be most necessary for guards who went out on special missions and then providing those wards.

1346 – Year of the BloodbirdNow at age 22, after a bit over three years helping the town guard in various magical tasks and growing steadily in power, Xonwar felt it was time to explore deeper mysteries of magic. There was now only really one thing left Mokhar could teach him: The practices of the archmages. But Xonwar felt this would take more focused study, so he quit the regular job with the town guard to return to the laboratory. He would still help the town guard if they asked and paid for it, but his focus would now be a more serious and in-depth study of magic.

1349 – Year of the BridleXonwar had now learned all that Mokhar could teach him and by his 25th birthday, he ended his apprenticeship with the archmage and they now worked together equals, although Mokhar was still certainly Xonwar's senior and the more experienced mage. They now were able to advice each other and not just the other way around. And Xonwar was now recognized by other local wizards as a fully trained wizard worthy of recognition and one to ask for advice on magical matters.

As far as further studies went, Xonwar now continued to study the improved metamagics theories from Candlekeep, but more importantly he began taking interest in other intellectual challanges independent of their potential use in magic. He began reading more of linguistics, history, logic, geography and especially planar cosmology. Up until this moment, he had never really thought much about his elemental heritage. He had accepted that it was either from Calimshan, so the efreeti ancestor would be long gone, or somehow related to the Arnrock.

Because he knew of his grand parents, he could also look for records related to that family. He travelled to Mintar and visited his grand parents, but never explained who he was, as he knew of his mother's disdain for their faith. He paid his grand father some gold to be allowed to catalogue the family line. He soon concluded from this research that it was unlikely his mother's line that had elemental ancestry. And his lack of knowledge of his father meant it would be difficult to find out more. Xonwar would now start seeking old friends of his mother to ask whatever they knew of it.

1351 – Year of the CrownNow 27 years old, Xonwar had for some time felt that as long as he was confined to the area on the western edge of the Lake of Steam, he would not be able to learn much more of the Art. Deciding at last that the world had more in store for him, he concluded that he would begin adventuring. And by the end of Tarsakh, many people were talking about the rumours of struggles around Baldur's Gate. Xonwar decided then that he would travel to the Sword Coast. Perhaps visit Candlekeep if he found such useful. See what kind of work and challenges he could find on the Coast to train his intellect and increase his power and understanding of the Art.

Mokhar encouraged Xonwar in this, saying it was a good choice. They agreed that this was not the last time they would meet and that they would try to stay in contact. Mokhar had, after all, become almost the father Xonwar never had.

Goals:

Grow in power and knowledge of magic

Find out more about his heritage. He suspects the elemental line comes from his unknown father.

Explore the potentials of the Sword Coast.

Find work in the current troubles both for coin and practice.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:

Magic! Of schools, his particular fields of interest are necromancy and evocation, but he is a generalist.

Elementals, elemental planes. Any hints towards heritage.

The True Neutral alignment means he may well be changed in one direction or the other, depending on experiences and situations he ends up in.

So far in his life, there hasn't been any significant challenge except the one find out more about his heritage, so a proper challenge, something frustrating would be interesting for him to encounter. Maybe something where magic just can't be the solution.

He is a little bit socially awkward because of his heritage and prodigy. He is a fire genasi and so thinks himself superior, even if he tries to not make a big fuzz out of it. It means that he will get frustrated by the "inferior" races' lack of intelligence.

// This biography may be subject to some minor changes the upcoming days //